How Office 365 commercial customers can get early access to new Office features

Last updated: September 21, 2017

If you’re the admin for an organization that has an Office 365 commercial subscription plan that includes Office, such as Office 365 ProPlus, you can provide your users with early access to new features of Office for Windows desktops by opting into the Targeted release program. To get the earliest access to new features with Targeted release, your organization must be on Monthly Channel. If you're configured for Targeted release and Monthly Channel, you'll get early access to new features through Monthly Channel (Targeted) releases.

Monthly Channel (Targeted) builds provide your selected users with builds of Office that contain the same features, at the same time, as those that are available to Office 365 consumer subscribers participating in the Monthly Channel (Targeted) level of the Office Insider program.

Important: If you’re an Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, or Office 365 University subscriber, don’t follow these steps. Instead, go to the Office Insider site to install Office Insider builds. You can also click File > Account > Office Insider to join the program or switch between Insider and Monthly Channel (Targeted) levels.

On the Software download settings page, under Software for PC and mobile devices, make sure Office is On under the 2016 desktop and mobile apps section and that Every month (Monthly channel) is selected.

After you've done this, instruct your users to go to https://portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware.aspx and sign in with their work or school account. Once they've signed in, they'll see a choice to install Office with the new apps. They'll also see this note:

Your admin has enabled Targeted release, so you get early access to the latest Office features.

If you deploy Office for your users, you can use the Office 2016 Deployment Tool to give users the same Targeted release build of Office as the steps above provide. To do this, follow the steps in the next section, but use Insiders for the Channel setting.

Note: While the new Channel setting used to install Monthly Channel (Targeted) builds is Insiders, the previous Channel setting of FirstReleaseCurrent or InsiderSlow will still work.

Install Insider builds of Office

If you want to give some of your users, such as testers in the IT department, access to the earliest preview builds, released more frequently, you can allow them to install builds from the Insider level of the Office Insider program.

Keep in mind that you must use the Office Deployment Tool to install Insider builds. Users can’t install Insider level builds from the Office 365 portal.

Important: The Insider level is part of the Office Insider consumer program and isn't supported for enterprise use. This level is best for users who want to use the earliest preview builds, released more frequently, to identify issues, provide feedback, and who don’t mind the risk in using unsupported builds. By choosing the Insider level, you agree to the program’s terms, which supersedes your agreement with Microsoft to use Office.

This installs a 32-bit version of Office 365 ProPlus in English from the Office Content Delivery Network (CDN) on the Internet. Office will also get automatically updated from the CDN when a new Insider level build is available.

Notes:

For the faster Insider level, the Channel setting remains InsiderFast.

For the slower Monthly Channel (Targeted) level, the Channel setting has changed from InsiderSlow or FirstReleaseCurrent to Insiders. The older settings have been deprecated, but they'll continue to work for those who've already created a config file.

If you want to install the 64-bit version of Office, use 64 for the OfficeClientEdition setting.

If you have the Office 365 Business or Office 365 Business Premium plan, use O365BusinessRetail, instead of O365ProPlusRetail, for the Product ID in the configuration.xml file.